Steve Jobs, driven by his genius and his gut, invented the iPhone and built Apple into the world’s most valuable company. He was uncompromising, larger than life and irreplaceable. His life was creating the future, which would be filled with devices controlled by their users.
Sam Altman spent the last year taking on the mantle of Jobs as the Silicon Valley entrepreneur in charge of tomorrow. It is the biggest job in Silicon Valley, and now the most difficult. As more people worry they will be controlled rather than in control, the future is fraught with danger.
Until Friday, Altman was the CEO of OpenAI, the dominant artificial intelligence company. He promised AI would usher in humanity’s first golden age even though it came from the same kind of inventors who thought there was a market for internet-connected toasters.